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State and local taxes are a big concern that didn't get any mention in the article.
Totally fair point. CA state income tax may take an additional 13% out of the Bay Area numbers. I'm adding this into the post now... Thanks for pointing this out!
I admit that I stopped reading at this point. Maybe I read that wrong and they meant "in addition to other areas", but from the way it's written it sounds like a conflict of interest. It's going to be difficult to make an objective assessment of the pros and cons of living in the Bay Area if your business depends on people wanting to live in the Bay Area.
This point is interesting: [3] We find that engineers often under-value startup success (growth rate, revenue) when looking for jobs, and instead place an emphasis on brand-recognition, or whether they find the subject area exciting. Now, I don't mean to judge anyone for this — working in an areas of passion may be great choice. But if your goal is to maximize your financial outcome, looking at startups more like an…
If your goal is to maximize your financial outcome
If you plan on buying a home it is worth considering the future when you decide to (semi?) retire from Corporate and sell the kid-raising home. Cashing out in Arkansas means you can move to ... a cheaper part of Arkansas. Cashing out in Silicon Valley means you can go about anywhere.
My friends back in Oklahoma are on their third or fourth houses (we're all around 35) at this point.
In the Bay Area, you probably don't buy a house until you're 35. In fact, you have to get a bit lucky to be able to do it then.
Houses aren't retirement plans in most places. And I think that's good.
This point is interesting: [3] We find that engineers often under-value startup success (growth rate, revenue) when looking for jobs, and instead place an emphasis on brand-recognition, or whether they find the subject area exciting. Now, I don't mean to judge anyone for this — working in an areas of passion may be great choice. But if your goal is to maximize your financial outcome, looking at startups more like an…
This is the bit I take issue with. I've done the whole startup thing, worked for 4 different companies in under 2 years, and it worked out great for me, but I did it in the Tennessee Valley, not Silicon Valley.
The Bay Area is not the only place with startup jobs. It's just the place with the biggest multi-national corporations still pretending to be startups.
I ended up in Los Angeles because, despite being an expensive city, rents were cheaper than the Bay Area, and the salaries being offered were equivalent. I have a great place in LA that would easily be 50% to double the price in the Bay. This wasn't the only reason but it was one of the biggest. Another reason being that I wanted to work in tech as it relates to media and content, and there were many more options to…
Here's example for Seattle and SF: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?cou...
I'm wondering if anyone could comment if those numbers look accurate for those cities.
When people compare salaries / the cost of living in different cities, they often fail to account for the fact that many people don't spend their entire salary in the local economy. If you are trying to save money (or pay for college, donate to a cause, or buy a Ferrari) this costs the same no matter where you live. You should only apply the cost of living adjustment to housing (and maybe food). When you do this, liv…
Don't forget taxes. Your taxes are 25% higher in San Francisco compared to Seattle.